Mrs. Hazleton was looking as beautiful as she had been at
twenty--perhaps more so; for the few last years before the process of
decay commences, sometimes adds rather than detracts from woman's
loveliness. She was dressed with great skill and taste too; nay, even
with peculiar care. The hair, which had not yet even one silver thread
in its wavy mass, was so arranged as to hide, in some degree, that
height and width of forehead which gave almost too intellectual an
expression to her countenance--which, upon some occasions, rendered
the expression (for the features were all feminine) more that of a man
than that of a woman. Her dress was very simple in appearance though
costly in material; but it had been chosen and fitted by the nicest
art, of colors which best harmonized with her complexion, and in forms
rather to indicate beauties than to display them.
Thus attired, with grace and dignity in every motion, she advanced to
meet Sir Philip Hastings, frankly holding out her hand to him, and
beaming on him one of her most lustrous smiles. It was all thrown away
upon him indeed; but that did not matter. It had its effect in another
quarter. She then turned to the younger gentleman with a greater
degree of reserve in manner, but yet, as she spoke to him and welcomed
him to her house, the color deepened on her cheek with a blush that
would not have been lost to Sir Philip if he had been at all in the
custom of making use of them. They had evidently met before, but not
often and her words, "Good evening, Mr. Marlow, I am glad to see you
at my house at length," were said in the tone if one who was really
glad, but did not wish to show it too plainly.
"You have come with my friend, Sir Philip Hastings," she added; "I did
not know you were acquainted."
"Nor were we, my dear madam, till this evening," replied the Baronet,
speaking for himself and his companion of the road, "till we met by
accident on the hill-side on our way hither. We had a somewhat
unpleasant encounter with a notorious personage of the name of Tom
Cutter, which brought us first into acquaintance; though, till you
uttered it, my young friend's name was unknown to me."
"Tom Cutter! is that the man who poaches all my game?" said the lady,
in a musing tone.
Nor was she musing of Tom Cutter, or the lost game, or of the sins and
iniquities of poaching; neither one or the other. The exclamation and
inquiry taken together were only one of those little half-unconscious
stratagems of human nature, by which we often seek to amuse the other
parties in conversation--and sometimes amuse our own outward man
too--while the little spirit within is busily occupied with some
question which we do not wish our interlocutors to have any thing to
do with. She was asking herself, in fact, what had been the
conversation with which Sir Philip Hastings and Mr. Marlow had
beguiled the way--whether they had talked of her--whether they had
talked of her affairs--and how she could best get some information on
the subject without seeming to seek it.
She soon had an opportunity of considering the matter more at leisure,
for Sir Philip Hastings, with some remark as to "dusty dresses not
being fit for ladies' drawing-rooms," retired for a time to the
chamber prepared for him. The fair lady of the house detained Mr.
Marlow indeed for a few minutes, talking with him in a pleasant and
gentle tone, and making her bright eyes do their best in the way of
captivating. She expressed regret that she had not seen him more
frequently, and expressed a hope, in very graceful terms, that even
the painful question, which those troublesome men of law had started
between them, might be a means of ripening their acquaintance into
friendship.
The young gentleman replied with all gallantry, but with due
discretion, and then retired to his room to change his dress. He
certainly was a very good-looking young man; finely formed, and with a
pleasing though not regularly handsome countenance; and perhaps he
left Mrs. Hazleton other matters to meditate of than the topics of his
conversation with Sir Philip Hastings. Certain it is, that when the
baronet returned very shortly after, he found his beautiful hostess in
a profound reverie, from which his sudden entrance made her start with
a bewildered look not common to her.
"I am very glad to talk to you for a few moments alone, my dear
friend," said Mrs. Hazleton, after a moment's pause. "This Mr. Marlow
is the gentleman who claims the very property on which you now stand;"
and she proceeded to give her hearer, partly by spontaneous
explanations, partly by answers to his questions, her own view of the
case between herself and Mr. Marlow; laboring hard and skilfully to
prepossess the mind of Sir Philip Hastings with a conviction of her
rights as opposed to that of her young guest.
"Do you mean to say, my dear madam," asked Sir Philip, "that he claims
the whole of this large property? That would be a heavy blow indeed."
"Oh, dear, no," replied the lady; "the great bulk of the property is
mine beyond all doubt, but the land on which this house stands, and
rather more than a thousand acres round it, was bought by my poor
father before I was born, I believe, as affording the most eligible
site for a mansion. He never liked the old house near your place, and
built this for himself. Mr. Marlow's lawyers now declare that his
grand-uncle, who sold the land to my father, had no power to sell it;
that the property was strictly entailed."
"That will be easily ascertained," said Sir Philip Hastings; "and I am
afraid, my dear madam, if that should prove the case, you will have no
remedy but to give up the property."
"But is not that very hard?" asked Mrs. Hazleton, "the Marlows
certainly had the money."
"That will make no difference," replied Sir Philip, musing; "this
young man's grand-uncle may have wronged your father; but he is not
responsible for the act, and I am very much afraid, moreover, that his
claim may not be limited to the property itself. Back rents, I
suspect, might be claimed."
"Ay, that is what my lawyer, Mr. Shanks, says," replied Mrs. Hazleton,
with a bewildered look; "he tells me that if Mr. Marlow is successful
in the suit, I shall have to pay the whole of the rents of the land.
But Shanks added that he was quite certain of beating him if we could
retain for our counsel Sargeant Tutham and Mr. Doubledo."
"Shanks is a rogue," said Sir Philip Hastings, in a calm, equable
tone; "and the two lawyers you have named bear the reputation of being
learned and unscrupulous men. The first point, my dear madam, is to
ascertain whether this young gentleman's claim is just, and then to
deal with him equitably, which, in the sense I affix to the term, may
be somewhat different from legal."
"I really do not know what to do," cried Mrs. Hazleton, with a slight
laugh, as if at her own perplexity. "I Was never in such a situation
in my life;" and then she added, very rapidly and in a jocular tone,
as if she were afraid of pausing upon or giving force to any one word,
"if my poor father had been alive, he would have settled it all after
his own way soon enough. He was a great match-maker you know, Sir
Philip, and he would have proposed, in spite of all obstacles, a
marriage between the two parties, to settle the affair by matrimony
instead of by law," and she laughed again as if the very idea was
ridiculous.
Unlearned Sir Philip thought so too, and most improperly replied, "The
difference of age would of course put that out of the question;" nor
when he had committed the indiscretion, did he perceive the red spot
which came upon Mrs. Hazleton's fair brow, and indicated sufficiently
enough the effect his words had produced. There was an ominous silent
pause, however, for a minute, and then the Baronet was the person to
resume the discourse in his usual calm, argumentative tone. "I do not
think," he said, "from Mr. Marlow's demeanor or conversation, that he
is likely to be very exacting in this matter. His claim, however, must
be looked to in the first place, before we admit any thing on your
part. If the property was really entailed, he has undoubtedly a right
to it, both in honesty and in law; but methinks there he might limit
his claim if his sense of real equity be strong; but the entail must
be made perfectly clear before you can admit so much as that."
"Well, well, sir," said Mrs. Hazleton, hastily, for she heard a step
on the outer stairs, "I will leave it entirely to you, Sir Philip, I
am sure you will take good care of my interests."
Sir Philip did not altogether like the word interests, and bowing his
head somewhat stiffly, he added, "and of your honor, my dear madam."
Mrs. Hazleton liked his words as little as he did hers, and she
colored highly. She made no reply, indeed, but his words that night
were never forgotten.
The next moment Mr. Marlow entered the room with a quiet, easy air,
evidently quite unconscious of having been the subject of
conversation. During the evening he paid every sort of polite
attention to his fair hostess, and undoubtedly showed signs and
symptoms of thinking her a very beautiful and charming woman. Whatever
was her game, take my word for it, reader, she played it skilfully,
and the very fact of her retiring early, at the very moment when she
had made the most favorable impression, leaving Sir Philip Hastings to
entertain Mr. Marlow at supper, was not without its calculation.
As soon as the lady was gone, Sir Philip turned to the topic of Mrs.
Hazleton's business with his young companion, and managed the matter
more skilfully than might have been expected. He simply told him that
Mrs. Hazleton had mentioned a claim made upon her estate by his
lawyers, and had thought it better to leave the investigation of the
affair to her friend, rather than to professional persons.
A frank good-humored smile came upon Mr. Marlow's face at once. "I am
not a rich man, Sir Philip," he said, "and make no professions of
generosity, but, at the same time, as my grand-uncle undoubtedly had
this money from Mrs. Hazleton's father, I should most likely never
have troubled her on the subject, but that this very estate is the
original seat of our family, on which we can trace our ancestors back
through many centuries. The property was undoubtedly entailed, my
father and my uncle were still living when it was sold, and performed
no disentailing act whatever. This is perfectly susceptible of proof,
and though my claim may put Mrs. Hazleton to some inconvenience, I am
anxious to avoid putting her to any pain. Now I have come down with a
proposal which I confidently trust you will think reasonable. Indeed,
I expected to find her lawyer here rather than an independent friend,
and I was assured that my proposal would be accepted immediately, by
persons who judged of my rights more sanely perhaps than I could."
"May I hear what the proposal is?" asked Sir Philip.
"Assuredly," replied Mr. Marlow, "it is this: that in the first place
Mrs. Hazleton should appoint some gentleman of honor, either at the
bar or not, as she may think fit, to investigate my claim, with myself
or some other gentleman on my part, with right to call in a third as
umpire between them. I then propose that if my claim should be
distinctly proved, Mrs. Hazleton should surrender to me the lands in
question, I repaying her the sum which my grand-uncle received, and--"
"Stay," said Sir Philip Hastings, "are you aware that the law would
not oblige you to do that?"
"Perfectly," replied Mr. Marlow, "and indeed I am not very sure that
equity would require it either, for I do not know that my father ever
received any benefit from the money paid to his uncle. He may have
received a part however, without my knowing it, for I would rather err
on the right side than on the wrong. I then propose that the rents of
the estate, as shown by the leases, and fair interest upon the value
of the ground surrounding this house, should be computed during the
time that it has been out of our possession, while on the other hand
the legal interest of the money paid for the property should be
calculated for the same period, the smaller sum deducted from the
larger, and the balance paid by me to Mrs. Hazleton or by Mrs.
Hazleton to me, so as to replace every thing in the same state as if
this unfortunate sale had never taken place."
Sir Philip Hastings mused without reply for more than one minute. That
is a long time to muse, and many may be the thoughts and feelings
which pass through the breast of man during that space. They were many
in the present instance, and it would not be very easy to separate or
define them. Sir Philip thought of all the law would have granted to
the young claimant under the circumstances of the case: the whole
property, all the back rents, every improvement that had been made,
the splendid mansion in which they were then standing, without the
payment on his part of a penny: he compared these legal rights with
what he now proposed, and he saw that he had indeed gone a great way
on the generous side of equity. There was something very fine and
noble in this conduct, something that harmonized well with his own
heart and feelings. There was no exaggeration, no romance about it: he
spoke in the tone of a man of business doing a right thing well
considered, and the Baronet was satisfied in every respect but one.
Mrs. Hazleton's words I must not say had created a suspicion, but had
suggested the idea that other feelings might be acting between her and
his young companion, notwithstanding the difference of age which he
had so bluntly pointed out, and he resolved to inquire farther.
In the mean time, however, Mr. Marlow somewhat misinterpreted his
silence, and he added, after waiting longer than was pleasant, "Of
course you understand, Sir Philip, that if two or three honest men
decide that my case is unfounded--although I know that cannot be the
case--I agree to drop it at once and renounce it for ever. My
solicitors and counsel in London judged the offer a fair one at
least."
"And so do I," said Sir Philip Hastings, emphatically; "however, I
must speak with Mrs. Hazleton upon the subject, and express my opinion
to her. Pray, have you the papers regarding your claim with you?"
"I have attested copies," replied Mr. Marlow, "and I can bring them to
you in a moment. They are so unusually clear, and seem to put the
matter so completely beyond all doubt, that I brought them down to
satisfy Mrs. Hazleton and her solicitor, without farther trouble, that
my demand at least had some foundation in justice."
The papers were immediately brought, and sitting down deliberately,
Sir Philip Hastings went through them with his young friend, carefully
weighing every word. They left not even a doubt on his mind; they
seemed not to leave a chance even for the chicanery of the law, they
were clear, precise, and definite. And the generosity of the young
man's offer stood out even more conspicuously than before.
"For my part, I am completely satisfied," said Sir Philip Hastings,
when he had done the examination, "and I have no doubt that Mrs.
Hazleton will be so likewise. She is an excellent and amiable person,
as well as a very beautiful woman. Have you known her long? have you
seen her often?"
"Only once, and that about a year ago," replied Mr. Marlow; "she is
indeed very beautiful as you say--for a woman of her period of life
remarkably so; she puts me very much in mind of my mother, whom I in
the confidence of youthful affection used to call 'my everlasting.' I
recollect doing so only three days before the hand of death wrote upon
her brow the vanity of all such earthly thoughts."
Sir Philip Hastings was satisfied. There was nothing like passion
there. Unobservant as he was in most things, he was more clear-sighted
in regard to matters of love, than any other affection of the human
mind. He had himself loved deeply and intensely, and he had not
forgotten it.
It was necessary, before any thing could be concluded, to wait for
Mrs. Hazleton's rising on the following morning; and, bidding Mr.
Marlow good night with a warm grasp of the hand, Sir Philip Hastings
retired to his room and passed nearly an hour in thought, pondering
the character of his new acquaintance, recalling every trait he had
remarked, and every word he had heard. It was a very satisfactory
contemplation. He never remembered to have met with one who seemed so
entirely a being after his own heart. There might be little flaws,
little weaknesses perhaps, but the confirming power of time and
experience would, he thought, strengthen all that was good, and
counsel and example remedy all that was weak or light.
"At all events," thought the Baronet, "his conduct on this occasion
shows a noble and equitable spirit. We shall see how Mrs. Hazleton
meets it to-morrow."
When that morrow came, he had to see the reverse of the picture, but
it must be reserved for another chapter.